General History: Ship Turret Development History

As the usual with my videos, this will be a broader overview of the development of naval gun turrets. Focused primarily on the history and less on the engineering.
A more detailed breakdown of individual turret types could come, if there were enough interest in it.
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Further reading:
www.amazon.com/Naval-Firepowe...
Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
1:14 - Earliest Turrets
5:41 - Modern Conception of Turret
8:40 - Triple Turret
12:32 - Quad Turret
14:30 - Tillman
15:35 - Gun Mount
16:46 - Ending

[@bkjeong4302]

Speaking of turrets, a turret with the same number and size of guns can vary massively in size depending on how efficiently designed it is. For example, it’s ridiculous how big Bismarck’s turrets are when they only have two 15” guns each. Those turrets approach Yamato’s main battery turrets, except on Yamato each main turret had 18” guns and three of them. In contrast, British ships with twin 15” guns had much smaller turrets.

[@timothyboles6457]

definitely a subject that you can go round and round on

[@markbeyea4063]

The U.S. Navy actually went back to thriple turrets in the North Carolina class, which came after the Colorados and before the South Dakotas.

[@gildor8866]

Great video!
I think the argument that a twin turret is safer than a triple turret because you loose less guns if the turret is put out of action is misleading. How much of your firepower you loose when loosing a turret depends on the number of turrets you have, not on the number of guns the turrets have. E.g. the six twin turrets of a japanese Fuso-class offer greater redundancy than the four triple turrets of a US Tennesses-class while having the same total number of guns. The same argument cannot be made when comparing the Tennessee to the Colorado-class. While the Colorado would loose only two guns instead of the three a Tennessee would loose, the Colorado has the disadvantage of starting with only 8 guns to the Tennessee twelve.
I think Tennessee and Colorado illustrate well what the debate between twins and tripples was mostly about: when working a given hull and displacement, do you want more guns or bigger guns? And the answer given tended to be "bigger guns". Only when the Washington naval treaty limited both the maximum calibre of the guns and the tonnage of a battleship did the greater weight efficency of the triple turret swing the debate in its favor.

[@alephalon7849]

Great video! Just when I thought I knew enough about naval turrets, I learn new things about them (brrr, semi-superimposed turrets wtf) and get refreshed and clarified on what I already know.

[@sprret]

Fantastic video as always.

[@FW190D9]

Great Video !!!

[@JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

There were turrets for the World War II 5 in 38 that did not penetrate into the hull. For example if you look at a Fletcher class, the midship turret was surface mounted. The part of the ship where was built contained the engines and the boilers not something you want ammunition to be stored amongst. I think destroyer escorts also sometimes sported the same turret if not they had a 4-in version of it.

[@doabarrellroll69]

I believe by USN terminology those were mounts as they lacked barbettes.

[@JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

@@doabarrellroll69 they were also counted as turrets in the specification for the Fletcher class and the destroyer escorts there were two classes of them. The one that comes to mind is the Buckley class.

[@JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

@@doabarrellroll69 I meant to add current terminology for guns in general the auto loader like the 76 mm otomelara (however the heck you spell it) are called mounts today. Even the 5-in guns are called mounts. But these are all auto loading weapons now.

[@jollyjohnthepirate3168]

In the age of castles a turret was a circular defensive structure built into a wall to increase the defenders field of fire especially fire parallel to the castles walls. Nothing says get your dirty hands off my castle walls like crossbow bolts sticking out of your sappers bodies.😁

[@technovelo]

Now I'm off to look up HMS Captain :)

[@bkjeong4302]

One of the worst warships ever built.

[@jollyjohnthepirate3168]

Didn't end well.

[@WildBillCox13]

Scharnhorts as battlecruisers; armed with 6 x 15". Or Bismarck with 12x 11". Or a Panzerschiffe going the Furious route with a single 18" gun forward and aft.

[@thelogicmatrix]

That'd be absolutely cancer to rangefind, iirc off the top of my head, you need at least 3 guns to find range on target after shot

[@andrewemery4272]

The USN definately had Freudian issues.